Major supermarket group decides to ´hold corporations to account for
complicity in Israel´s violations of Palestinian human rights´

The British Co-operative Group has become the first major European
supermarket group to end trade with firms that export produce from
Israeli settlements in the West Bank, The Guardian reported Sunday.

According to the daily, the UK´s fifth biggest food retailer and its
largest mutual business, the Co-op took the measure as an extension
of its existing policy which had been not to import produce from
Jewish settlements.

Now, The Guardian reported, the retail and insurance giant has taken
its boycott one step further by "no longer engaging with any supplier
of produce known to be sourcing from the Israeli settlements."

The report said decision will affect four companies and contracts
worth some £350,000 ($566,000). However, the Co-op stressed this is
not an Israeli boycott and that its contracts will go to other
companies inside Israel that can guarantee they don´t export
from "illegal" settlements.

According to The Guardian, Co-op´s decision will immediately affect
four suppliers, Agrexco, Arava Export Growers, Adafresh and Mehadrin,
Israel´s largest agricultural export company.

Hilary Smith, Co-op member and Boycott Israel Network (BIN)
agricultural trade campaign coordinator, was quoted by The Guardian
as saying that the Co-op "has taken the lead internationally in this
historic decision to hold corporations to account for complicity in
Israel´s violations of Palestinian human rights. We strongly urge
other retailers to take similar action."

A spokesperson for the Palestinian Union of Agricultural Work
Committees said, "Israeli agricultural export companies like Mehadrin
profit from and are directly involved in the ongoing colonization of
occupied Palestinian land and theft of our water. Trade with such
companies constitutes a major form of support for Israel´s apartheid
regime over the Palestinian people, so we warmly welcome this
principled decision by the Co-operative.